Having a reference in a strip about Chuck never taking off his sunglasses is always fun for us. But this strip is mainly about the “Cessna Diamond” as we call it in aviation. Everybody I know who has ever worked around those Cessna high-wing planes, especially the 152’s and 172’s has had one at one time or another. And man, it hurts!

Discussion (7) ¬

In fact, I remember of a Maule’s MX-7 wing that fell onto my head. I was standing underneath the right wing while the mechanic was replacing the tire, the aircraft suspended by a jack. He then simply released the jack wihout warning. And, before that happened, when the mechanic was replacing the other tire, the aircraft’s owner was standing under the left wing… guess what happened!

I had a whole airplane fall of it’s jacks once. One of the jacks failed and when everything got crooked the rest tumbled over as well. I had just worked underneath and walked over to my toolbox to get another tool (I was angry I had forgotten it in the first place and had to get up again) when it came crashing down a foot behind me. . . . .
Aviation is dangerous!

I was more familiar with the term “Cessna pimple” than “Cessna diamond”

I once got a “Cessna scrape” on my forehead; I was wearing a ball cap (which I seldom do) and practically ran forward in the Caravan to go talk with a colleague, forgetting about that spot where the ceiling lowers because of the spar. Ow.

But the worse I’ve seen was a student of mine. He’s out doing the walk-around, far enough along in his training to do it without supervision…

Important detail, the fellow is about 6’6″ tall.

So as I’m chatting with the dispatcher, in he comes, face strewn with a fair amount of blood!

(First aid interlude…)

It turned out he bent down, got up fast, and cut himself with one of the flaps’ trailing edge. He ended up needing a few stitches.

After going skydiving for the first time, I was walking back to the hangar and ran into the wing of the Cessna 205 I had just jumped out of. Even though blood was running down my face, I didn’t feel a thing. Skydiving will do that to you I guess.